I. ˈteləˌskōp noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: New Latin telescopium, from Greek tēleskopos far-seeing (from tēle- tel- (I) + skopos watcher) + Latin -ium — more at scope
1.
a. : an optical instrument usually tubular in shape for viewing distant objects by means of the refraction of light rays through a lens or the reflection of light rays by a concave mirror so that the rays enter an opening and converge to form an image seen through a magnifying eyepiece — compare cassegrainian telescope , galilean telescope , herschelian telescope , reflector , refractor , terrestrial telescope
b. : telescope sight
c. : any of various tubular magnifying optical instruments (as for reading the scale on a galvonometer or for use in a bronchoscope)
a bronchoscopic telescope
a cystoscopic telescope
d. : radio telescope
2. or telescope bag : a traveling bag consisting of two parts of which the larger fits over the smaller
3. : telescope goldfish
4. : something that telescopes or that is telescoped
rigged the telescope steel bait rod first — Hugh Fosburgh
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
intransitive verb
1. : to slide or pass one within another like the cylindrical sections of a hand telescope
a two-piece knockdown support, designed for the tent and made of telescoping aluminum tubes — Sheila Hibben
both rods telescope to extend to exact size — Spiegel's Catalog
: force a way into or enter another lengthwise as the result of collision
the two sleeping cars telescoped
2. : to become telescoped
those years seemed to have telescoped, like time in a dream — Helen Howe
transitive verb
1. : to cause to telescope
the front and end cars that took the shock of the impact were telescoped — Howard Austin
from the river side the three parts of the building appear to be telescoped into each other — American Guide Series: Maryland
2. : to combine, coalesce, or run together in order to shorten or simplify : compress , condense
the rules of good cooking cannot be telescoped into a single sentence or even paragraph — J.L.Evans
the book arbitrarily telescopes time and space, and as arbitrarily extends them — Phoebe Adams
telescope a century of industrial history into a decade — G.L.Arnold
telescoped into a brief span experiences that represented chronologically many times that number of years — Stella Center
if an evolutionary development may be verbally telescoped into an event — A.L.Kroeber
one can telescope the seasons and witness four weeks of spring's advance in the space of seven days — I.R.Barnes
specifically : to combine (words) by omitting part of one or more of the components
telescope two words (like infanticipate from infant and anticipate ) — Word Study
: form (as a word or title) by such combining